The present invention relates to reverse cementing operations useful in subterranean formations, and more particularly, to the use of ball operated back pressure valves in reverse circulation operations.
After a well for the production of oil and/or gas has been drilled, casing may be run into the wellbore and cemented. In conventional cementing operations, a cement composition is displaced down the inner diameter of the casing. The cement composition is displaced downwardly into the casing until it exits the bottom of the casing into the annular space between the outer diameter of the casing and the wellbore. It is then pumped up the annulus until a desired portion of the annulus is filled.
The casing may also be cemented into a wellbore by utilizing what is known as a reverse-cementing method. The reverse-cementing method comprises displacing a cement composition into the annulus at the surface. As the cement is pumped down the annulus, drilling fluids ahead of the cement composition around the lower end of the casing string are displaced up the inner diameter of the casing string and out at the surface. The fluids ahead of the cement composition may also be displaced upwardly through a work string that has been run into the inner diameter of the casing string and sealed off at its lower end. Because the work string by definition has a smaller inner diameter, fluid velocities in a work string configuration may be higher and may more efficiently transfer the cuttings washed out of the annulus during cementing operations.
The reverse circulation cementing process, as opposed to the conventional method, may provide a number of advantages. For example, cementing pressures may be much lower than those experienced with conventional methods. Cement composition introduced in the annulus falls down the annulus so as to produce little or no pressure on the formation. Fluids in the wellbore ahead of the cement composition may be bled off through the casing at the surface. When the reverse-circulating method is used, less fluid may be handled at the surface and cement retarders may be utilized more efficiently.
In reverse circulation methods, it may be desirable to stop the flow of the cement composition when the leading edge of the cement composition slurry is at or just inside the casing shoe. In order to determine when to cease the reverse circulation fluid flow, the leading edge of the slurry is typically monitored to determine when it arrives at the casing shoe. Logging tools and tagged fluids (by density and/or radioactive sources) have been used monitor the position of the leading edge of the cement slurry. If a significant volume of the cement slurry enters the casing shoe, clean-out operations may need to be conducted to ensure that cement inside the casing has not covered targeted production zones. Position information provided by tagged fluids is typically available to the operator only after a considerable delay. Thus, even with tagged fluids, the operator is unable to stop the flow of the cement slurry into the casing through the casing shoe until a significant volume of cement has entered the casing. Imprecise monitoring of the position of the leading edge of the cement slurry can result in a column of cement in the casing 100 feet to 500 feet long. This unwanted cement may then be drilled out of the casing at a significant cost.